Tata Power revises renewables' share upwards to 30-40% by 2025

Tata Power has decided to increase the share of its renewable energy output to 30-40% by 2025, up from its earlier target of 20%, a top company official has said.

Currently, the private sector utility has an operational capacity of 9,156 megawatt (Mw), including 693 Mw from hydel, 593 Mw from wind and 60 Mw from solar sources.

"The government has set an ambitious target of 175 Gw (gigawatt) renewable energy capacity by 2022. We have set a target of 20,000 Mw of total capacity by 2025 and had initially set a target of 20% of it from the renewable sources," Tata Power Managing Director and chief executive Anil Sardana told PTI in an interview.

 

He said that the company has now decided to increase the share of renewal capacity up to 30-40% by 2025, which will mostly be led by solar power.

Of the 175 Gw, the government has set a target of 100 Gw from solar and 60,000 Mw from wind.

"Though solar is a very small part in our total portfolio, it will increase significantly over the period as the government is expected to bid out large scale projects to meet its target. For wind, on the other hand, we will continue to look at opportunities as and when they come," he said.

When asked about its strategy to increase this capacity, he said: "We will be looking at both organic as well as inorganic growth for the same."

The company currently has 682 Mw capacity under execution and another 6,435 Mw under development.

On the international business front, Sardana said that the company is looking at an equal share of revenues from all the four geographies it is operating in now. Currently, the international operations contribute a tad over 35% of the total income.

When asked whether he expects the income share of global operations to touch 50% soon, he said: "Currently, we are present in five geographies, including South Africa, Georgia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the home market. We are seeing good opportunities in all these markets and going forward we expect all the geographies to contribute equally to our total revenue."

In Georgia, Tata Power is developing three hydro-electric projects in two phases of 185 Mw and 215 Mw, while in South Africa, it has entered into a 50:50 partnership with Exxaro Resources to develop a 229 Mw wind project, Sardana said.

In Vietnam, the company is planning to develop a 1,320 Mw coal-based project, he added.

Tata Power has stake in two mines in Indonesia, with 30% each in Arutmin Mines and Kaltim Prima Coal Mines, and 26% in PT Baramulti Sukses Sarana. It was also a part of a consortium of partners to develop a geothermal project in Indonesia.

Recently, however, the company's Singapore-based arm Tata Power International has signed an agreement with KS Orka Renewables for sale of its 50% stake in OTP Geothermal for $30 million.

On January 30, 2014, it had also signed an agreement to sell its entire 30% interest in Arutmin Mines and associated companies for around $510 million after the government there changed the royalty norms, which massively ramped prices, leading to the company losing its price advantage.

"We are hopeful to complete the stake sale procedure in the next 6-8 months," Sardana said.

The coal from these mines is used for the company's 4,000-Mw ultra mega power project in Mundra in Gujarat and the 1,580-Mw plant in Trombay in the megapolis. Both use only imported coal.

But Sardana was quick to add that even at the elevated prices, (prices have massively corrected following the commodity meltdown since 2014) imported coal is cheaper than the domestic supplies.